50% of Kazakhstan’s prison population out of work

50% of Kazakhstan’s prisoners are out of work, Tengrinews.kz reports, citing the country’s Interrior Minister Kalmukhanbet Kassymov as saying. “Only 50% of the current prisoners able to work do have jobs (…) it’s a paltry number”, the Minister said in the country’s Majilis (lower chamber). He elaborated that it takes $4254 a year to sustain one prisoner in a regular prison and $6209 in a pre-trial detention facility. Therefore, securing jobs for prisoners is a key issue related to prison population, the Minister believes. “Some prisons are obsolete in terms of industrial production capabilities (…) prisons produce furniture, construction materials, textiles; however, the production output is insignificant”, the Minister said. He said that plans are there to construct new prisons as private and public partnerships, with private entities arranging production facilities within the prisons to be built. “Businessmen are reluctant to cooperate with prisons: due to obsolete equipment it’s not plausible to launch any type of business”, Mr. Kassymov said. According to the Kazakhstan’s General Prosecutor’s Office, prison population stood at 42 000 as of the end of 2013.